The Guardians, 2-1, now head to San Diego to face the undefeated Padres, coming off four-game opening series sweep of the Atlanta Braves.

It’s a bit too early to look at overall team statistics for anything meaningful, but, for what it’s worth, the Guardians have a 128 wRC+ as a team and the Padres have a 115 wRC+, the Guardians are at -0.7 Baserunning Runs above average and the Padres are at +1.4 BSR, both teams are underwater defensively at -1.8 Defensive fWAR for Cleveland and -0.9 for San Diego, and the Guardians have a team SIERA of 4.03 and the Padres’ SIERA is 3.40.

Hamstrung by some financial concerns and entanglements for their franchise, San Diego didn’t change a heck of a lot from their playoff roster from last year, adding starting pitchers Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart, first baseman/outfielder Connor Joe, outfielder Jason Heyward, and backup catcher Elias Diaz. Their notable losses from last year’s team were outfielder Jurickson Profar, infielder Ha-Seong Kim, and reliever Tanner Scott.

Here’s the pitching matchups:

Game One: 9:40PM EDT – Luis L. Ortiz, RHP vs. Kyle Hart, LHP

Game Two: 9:40PM EDT – Logan T. Allen, LHP vs. Michael King, RHP

Game Three: 4:10PM EDT – Ben Lively, RHP vs. Dylan Cease, RHP

Analysis:

Well, the pitching matchups here don’t look GREAT on paper. If Ortiz can discover the command he was lacking all spring training, then the Guardians’ offense matches up well with Hart. I’d expect Johnathan Rodriguez to get his first start tonight, perhaps giving Manzardo a chance to come off the bench against a right-handed reliever. Then, the Guardians go up against two of the better pitchers in the National League in games two and three, while putting what many would assume to be the bottom of their rotation on the mound in opposition. But, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and certainly Lively has continually outperformed public expectations.

This will likely be a series where we will see Jose Ramirez after he jammed his wrist, so we’ll have a chance to analyze every facial expression to see if there’s any hint of grimace. We also will see if the Guardians’ bullpen can find their footing after a shaky first weekend in Kansas City. Finally, I’m monitoring Brayan Rocchio and Bo Naylor, who have put up some good at-bats and good swings with nothing to show for it, to make sure they continue a steady approach and hopefully get some good results to show for it.

Get your caffeine plans ready, Guardians fans; we’ve got Pacific Coast baseball on tap!